Powers/Abilities: Able to fly / glide using his cloak, the fabled
"Cape of Mercury". Skilled fighter. Knowledgeable in a wide variety of fields,
especially the underworld.

History: (Marvel Mystery Comics #20, ga, text) After his mother
died during childbirth, Thomas Halloway was raised by his prison warden father,
actually growing up in his father's workplace. As well as being taught by
tutors brought in by his father, the youth also befriended and learned from
many of the inmates, gaining what would prove to be a valuable understanding
of the criminal community. When he and his childhood friend Bob discovered
that a prisoner was to be executed, they managed to intervene to save him.
The grateful man described his saviour as an angel.

When Thomas reached adulthood he decided to become a private detective, and
also adopted the costumed identity of "The Angel" to fight crime.

(Marvel Comics #1, ga) The Angel tracked down the racketeer known
as The Big Boss.

(Citizen V and the V-Battalion I #2) After the War, the Angel was
one of a number of heroes who formed the Penance Council, the ruling body
of the V-Battalion, dedicated to fighting the rise of dictatorships and other
threats to the world.

(Citizen V and the V-Battalion II #1) In 1953 the Angel attended the
funeral of his friend John Falsworth, the Union Jack of World War II.

Comments:
Created by Paul Gustavson. Among the other people who worked on the character
over the years was Carmine Infantino, who would become acknowledged as one
of the greats of the industry.

The Angel has been brought back in the modern era, but thanks to lack of
communication (probably) within Marvel, he has two conflicting fates, neither
one of which treats one of the company's very first characters with a lot
of respect. Realising the foul-up, they have tried to retroactively give
Thomas Halloway a brother who also acted as the Angel, so that they can allow
both stories to work. Whether either, both, or neither of these people who
claimed to be the Golden Age Angel prove to be the real thing, only time
will tell. I've not included them in the history above, but for your perusal,
below are both versions:

Version 1

(Marvel Super Heroes III #7, Incredible Hulk #432) Thomas Halloway fell
on hard times after the war, eventually becoming a tramp who lived in the
New York Sewer System.

(USAgent #4, bts) After an bystander was killed, the Angel hung up his
cape, unwilling to risk more innocent lives in his fight against crime. Still
wishing to combat lawlessness and seeking a way to atone for his mistake,
he eventually founded a group of trained assassins, the Scourges, who would
ambush and murder costumed criminals.

Strictly speaking, the Angel's first post-Golden Age appearance was in Avengers
I #97, when Rick Jones summoned forth mental projections of a number of Golden
Age heroes, Halloway among them.